(Special Issue) The Relationship Between Internet Addiction, Game Addiction, and Life Satisfaction in High School Students: Parents’ Attitude Toward Their Children’s Online Behavior as a Moderating Variable Author: Huei-Chin Ho (Department of Social Work, Hsuan Chuang University), Shu-Fang Kao (Department of Applied Psychology, Hsuan Chuang University)

Vol.&No.：Vol. 66, No. 4
Date：December 2021
Pages：35-67
DOI：https://doi.org/10.6209/JORIES.202112_66(4).0002

Abstract：
Background and Purpose
　　Internet use has increased in popularity and is often useful. However, if high school students are addicted to the internet or games, addictive use may have a negative influence on the students’ lives. In such circumstances, what role might parents’ attitudes play in changing their children’s internet use? This research aimed to understand high school students’ internet use, especially whether they exhibited internet or game addiction. Additionally, the study investigated how parents’ attitudes toward high school students’ internet use are related to student life satisfaction and whether parents’ attitudes moderate the relationship between internet use and life satisfaction.
Literature Review
Internet addiction disorder (IAD) was first defined by Goldberg (1995), who described Internet addiction as “a pathology, an obsessive/compulsive disorder, which drives a person to overuse of this technology and includes a wide variety of behaviors and problems with impulse control.” Diagnostic criteria for internet addiction include spending increasing periods of time, inappropriate amounts of time, or more time than planned online; reducing face-to-face social activities in order to be online; not being able to curtail online activity; and psychological withdrawal symptoms after online activity has ceased (Goldberg, 1995).
Game disorder is defined in the International Classification of Diseases, 11th Revision as a pattern of gaming behavior (“digital-gaming” or “video-gaming”) characterized by impaired control over gaming, where the individual allows gaming to take precedence over other interests and daily activities, and the continuation or escalation of gaming despite the negative consequences (WHO, 2018). The risk of internet addiction among people over 12 years old was approximately 3.5% in the 2015 national survey about internet addiction, and it increased to 5.0% in the 2017 survey. Therefore, it is necessary to pay greater attention to the impact of internet and gaming addiction on young people. Numerous studies have also indicated that the attitude of parents has a crucial role in whether children develop addictive behavior.
The following hypotheses were derived from the literature review.
Hypothesis 1-1:   Internet addiction among high school students has gender differences, and the rate of addiction in boys is higher than in girls.
Hypothesis 1-2: The objective and subjective grades of high school students are significantly related to internet addiction.
Hypothesis 2-1:   Game addiction among high school students has gender differences, and the rate of addiction in boys is higher than in girls.
Hypothesis 2-2:   The objective and subjective grades of high school students are significantly related to game addiction.
Hypothesis 3:      Internet addiction among high school students is significantly related to game addiction.
Hypothesis 4-1:   Parents’ attitudes toward their children’s online behavior (support type and control type) are significantly related to high school students’ internet addiction.
Hypothesis 4-2:   Parents’ attitudes toward their children’s online behavior (support type and control type) are significantly related to high school students’ game addiction.
Hypothesis 5-1:   High school students’ internet addiction can predict their overall life satisfaction.
Hypothesis 5-2:   High school students’ game addiction can predict their overall life satisfaction.
Hypothesis 6:      Parents’ attitudes toward high school students’ online behaviors can moderate the relationship between their children’s internet or game addiction and overall life satisfaction.
Method
　　The data used in this research were collected as part of the Taiwan Communication Survey — specifically, the sixth subtopic of the second phase in 2017, which focused on the utility of new media and the impacts of internet use (e.g., addiction, cyberbullying and problematic use). Interviews with 793 high school and vocational students (45.6% boys and 54.4% girls) are held in the database.
The measurement variables used in this study included demographic variables (e.g., gender, grades), internet addiction, game addiction, life satisfaction, and parents’ attitudes toward their children’s online behavior. We measured correlation and regression to test the hypotheses. Based on factor analysis and internal consistency reliability analysis, the measurement tools had good reliability and validity.
Results
　　(1) Hypothesis 1 was partially supported. Internet addiction exhibited negligible difference between high school students of different genders. However high school students’ grades are not significantly related to internet addiction.
　　(2) Hypothesis 2 was partially supported. Among boys, game addiction occurred at a significantly higher rate than among girls, and the higher the objective academic achievement was, the lower the internet addiction rate among students. A higher subjective score only affected the tendency to be addicted to the internet.
　　(3) Hypothesis 3 was supported. High school students’ internet addiction was significantly related to game addiction.
　　(4) Hypothesis 4 was partially supported. Parental control attitudes were significantly related to internet addiction and game addiction. Parental support attitude was only partially correlated with internet addiction and game addiction.
　　(5) Hypothesis 5 was supported. High school students’ internet addiction and game addiction affect their life satisfaction. The predictors of high school students’ life satisfaction were high subjective grades, parental support attitudes, and low internet addiction.
　　(6) Hypothesis 6 was partially supported. Parents’ supportive attitudes weaken the negative impact of internet addiction and game addiction on life satisfaction, but control attitudes have no moderating effect.
Conclusion and Recommendations
　　First, high school students with better self-perceived grades and whose parents have stronger support attitudes toward their online behaviors have higher life satisfaction. The higher a student’s tendency toward internet addiction and game addiction was, the lower their life satisfaction was. Second, parents’ support attitudes enhance life satisfaction for those who have a low tendency to internet addiction and game addiction.
Recommendations
　　The phenomena of internet and gaming addictions among high school students is worthy of attention. Parents’ support attitudes are helpful to students, therefore, we recommend that parents support their children’s internet use instead of control. Schools and teachers should pay more attention to students’ internet usage behavior, in addition, you can also strengthen advocacy. It is hoped that these research results will be a point of reference for schools, parents, and high school students and enhance their understanding of issues related to high school students’ online behavior.

Keywords：life satisfaction, high school students, parental attitudes toward children’s online behavior, game addiction, internet addiction

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